Significant article: "GPRS will run at 30kbps"-- Ericy development manager
Inside Today Ready For GPRS?
January 17,
Taking Web applications and running them over a GSM network will require more work than many Internet companies think, argues Paolo Bourelly of Ericsson, business development manager of GAA. ?The behavior of IP over a radio network is totally different.?
Bourelly says factors like weak signals, signal ghosting, and intermittent connections ? all the problems that can dog users of mobile phones ? can be disastrous for Web applications optimized for a typical, wired, network environment. Broken connections can cause applications, both client and server side, to crash and even momentary interruptions in signal can cause large file downloads to fail.
The GAA is trying to promote awareness of these issues amongst developers and Internet companies, offering testing facilities to encourage companies to address these issues before they become obvious to live users. These testing facilities, provided by the GAA, currently based around a software simulator and soon to include a trial network are made available at no charge, says Bourelly. The alliance is building a database to allow members to share information on known issues with the emerging technology, he adds.
While GPRS has the potential to offer high-speed connections of up to 115 Kbps in a controlled (i.e. non-real world) environment, Bourelly is quick to downplay GPRS as a fast way of connecting to the Internet, since bandwidth is dictated by the available capacity. As with any IP network, it is dynamically allocated.
Urban GSM users will know from bitter experience, from time to time it is impossible to get a connection due to the finite capacity of a cell. Media excitement over GPRS may lead to people expecting higher speeds than would be available, Bourelly says. He anticipates most users experiencing speeds of around 30 Kbps. What GPRS can offer, Bourelly says, is an ?always on? network.
Most operators have yet to finalize pricing schemes ? arguably they have a choice of charging by the byte or a fixed monthly fee ? if they are prepared to charge a flat rate, just as with fixed line access, it will kick start wireless networking.
Offering users an ?always on? wireless network means that new, location-specific push services can be developed, if the user is prepared to allow operators to divulge his or her whereabouts. Similarly applications offering real-time pricing information ? whether concerning shares or the availability a cut-price ticket to Geneva -- can be offered.
But wireless Internet won?t be plain sailing according to Bruce Jackson, CTO of Concept Technologies, who counts himself as an enthusiast for the technology.
GPRS sees the telco world with its super-documented standards collide with the Internet, where, despite the oft-heard calls for standards, technical specifications are frequently more loosely regulated. ?There are a 101 technical issues to be resolved,? says Jackson. ?Roaming is a huge unanswered question, cross network authentication and firewall tunneling for access to corporate networks have yet to be standardized.?
Jackson says some operators will only offer access to services via their own ISP.
The Ericsson-led GAA counts Lotus, Palm, Alcatel and Symbian amongst its core members. Ericsson?s key wireless rival Nokia is said to be ?interested? in participation in the scheme.
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